Travel down the highways and bye-ways of Commonwealth stamp collecting for news and views about Commonwealth stamps.

Thursday, 14 July 2016

786. New Royal Baby Stamps - From Bhutan.

In Blog 741 I mentioned the birth of the heir to the throne of Bhutan, the Gyalsey, on 5 February 2016 and wondered if Bhutan Post would issue a set of stamps to commemorate the child's birth. Well, indeed it has - a delightful sheetlet of 5 different stamps with an accompanying miniature sheet.

Earlier this year Bhutan, which once had special treaty relations with Great Britain, and later with India, had a visit from the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, who themselves had only a few months before had become proud, young parents for the second time.

I wondered if Bhutan Post might also produce a set of stamps to commemorate the visit of the British royal couple but I have not yet news of such a set.

I do not yet know the date of issue of the Gyalsey set but find it to be a very appealing issue. Rating:-*****.

IGPC has issued a sheetlet of 16 stamps (4 se-tenant blocks of 4) and an 8 stamp miniature sheet (2 blocks of 4) as a World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF) issue on the subject of the Slender-snouted crocodile. I do not yet know the date of issue. The country name that appears on the stamps, by the way, is Ghana. Raring:- ***.

It's never a surprise to find another batch of philatelic products being put out by Stamperija. This time it is another stack of 10 "sheetlets", each containing 4 different "stamps", with 10 accompanying "miniature sheets" with the name of Sierra Leone printed on them. This is the second part of a collection of sets on the vague subject of transport and science. I illustrate them all below so that reader can draw their own conclusions about the stuff. My rating, as usual, - 0.

Featured subjects:- 55th anniversary of Yuri Gargarin becoming the first man in space, the Juno space mission to Jupiter, Exploration of Mars, Motor cycles, Public transport, Nobel Prize winners, Centenary of Einstein's Theory of Relativity, Bicentenary of the invention of the stethoscope, Quincentenary of the birth of Conrad Gessner and the 80th anniversary of the death of Louis Bleriot, The total face value of the whole set is Le480,000 or £65.30p and the date of issue was 29 April 2016.